Clydesdale Bank, 106 Commercial Street, Lerwick

This is a two-storey and attic bank, with a concealed basement, built in 1892 to a design by John M Aitken, situated on a corner plot in Lerwick. The building is constructed in an asymmetrical Scots Baronial style. The principal floor is faced with painted ashlar, while the upper walls are of harl-pointed random rubble with cement and droved ashlar dressings and details. A frieze is present, incorporating string and band courses above the shopfront.

The south elevation (facing Burn’s Walk) is asymmetrical and three-bayed. A double-leaf timber entrance door with plate glass fanlight is centrally positioned on the principal floor, recessed within a doorpiece featuring a bracketed cornice and an advanced segmental pediment. Flanking the entrance are shop windows. Bipartite windows are present on the first floor, with a pointed-arched lintel over the window to the left. A crowstepped gable with a ball finial is above the centre, containing a single window. A chimney-gable is located over the bays to the right, featuring a seven-flue stugged sandstone apex stack capped with circular cans. A circular turret is corbelled out at the southeast corner, featuring blind arrowslits, a bracketed and corniced frieze, and a crenellated parapet.

The west elevation (facing Commercial Street) is near-symmetrical, also three-bayed. A double-leaf timber entrance door with a two-pane fanlight is positioned in the left-hand bay, with shop windows in the flanking bays. A bipartite window sits centrally on the first floor, flanked by further windows. A crowstepped gable with a ball finial breaks the eaves at the centre, and incorporates a single window. A circular turret corbelled out at the southwest corner has a frieze and cornice at the eaves, topped with a conical fish-scale slated roof and a wrought-iron weathervane finial.

The north elevation displays a gabled bay to the outer right. The principal floor is blank, while the first floor has a single, narrow window. A crowstepped gable with a corniced four-flue stugged sandstone apex stack is present. Modern alterations and finishes are visible in the bays to the left.

The east elevation is largely obscured by a modern two-storey addition, which covers the principal and first floors. A gable at attic level, in the bay to the left, contains a single window with a pointed-arched lintel.

Modern glazing is throughout the building. The roof is covered in purple-grey slate, with stugged droved ashlar skew copes and crowsteps.